Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 28

Part 3 of my series on Catholic Social Teaching: The Common Good, Part 2

Last time, in this space, we mentioned that, while the Church condemns atheistic communism for, among other things, denial of the right of private property, it is also leery of the dangers of capitalism. Why? As G.K. Chesterton put it, because it produces too few capitalists and, instead of concentrating wealth and power in the […]

Saturdays are a good day to catch up…

…on my most recent Catholic and Enjoying It Live! podcasts. Go here to listen to my conversations with Nina Butorac (on her book Sacramental Letters), Ron Belgau (on the Church’s engagement with gay folk), and Mitzi Hellmer (on our responsibility as Catholics to refugees at the border).

Part 2 of the Catholic Social Teaching Series: The Common Good, Part 1

Last time, in this space, we looked at the first pillar of Catholic social teaching: the dignity of the human person. This is a concept that is easily familiar to many Catholics, particularly since it undergirds the pro-life movement. It lies at the root of the truth that human beings are human beings, not human doings; that […]

I thought it might be a good idea to do a little refresher on Catholic Social Doctrine

So here is Part 1 of a seven part series outlining the Four Pillars of Catholic Social Teaching.  Forget The Da Vinci Code or the Hidden Secrets of the Vatican or the other conspiratorial rubbish people run around looking for in the Church’s attic.  Here is the real Best Kept Secret in the Church: The […]

Neither the National Catholic Register nor anybody else in the Right Wing Noise Machine broke this story

Unmarked buildings, quiet legal help for accused priests DRYDEN, Mich. (AP) — The visiting priests arrived discreetly, day and night. Stripped of their collars and cassocks, they went unnoticed in this tiny Midwestern town as they were escorted into a dingy warehouse across from an elementary school playground. Neighbors had no idea some of the […]

Catholics Should not Care about Left or Right When It Comes to the Death Penalty

Here is a note from Jon Crane of Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, doing God’s work by fighting for religious liberty against bloodthirsty right wing radicals at war with it and alerting us to this protest against the State of Texas: Interfaith Statement in Response to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Decision to […]

So last week, Patrick Coffin sent out a tweet…

My initial response on the Book of Face was, “What happened to you, man?” The next day, somebody forwarded me this tweet: This child died next to a toilet, alone, in a Border Patrol facility. There should have been high-level firings over this, but there were none. Not even a statement of remorse from the […]

Here’s a little piece from the Northwest Catholic…

…on, among other things, what I’ve been up to lately here in the Seattle area.

Why Us? Part 2

We continue: Chronological Snobbery is the notion that, because we have blenders and microwaves we are just naturally hundreds of years smarter than our ancestors.  The appeals to astronomical knowledge and science fiction speculations as some kind of argument against the Incarnation presuppose that ancient Christians had no idea the universe was huge and never […]

Why Us? Part 1

This is another bit of my Creed book, this time addressing a question that has gained more prominence with the growth of our knowledge about the size of the universe and (just as much) with the imagination our culture branching out to wonder about Klingons and Vulcans and such like other critters: The next difficulty […]